Many websites don't want their images to be copied. The little "right-click-javascript-block" doesn't help a lot, since everybody knows how to use the "print screen" button. There is only one way to keep images yours: Adding a watermark to it. To protect their images, they add a line over te image with the name or ULR of the website. Advanced Photoshop users will know how to work their way around this watermark. I'll show another way of watermarking that is a little but more subtle but way more fun.

Look at the image above. Looks like a nice place with flowers with some text on top, doesn't it? Now select the image (Ctrl+A). There you have it: The hidden watermark.

Problem is, that this kind of showing the watermark only works in Internet Explorer. Allthough I don't really like that fact, I still like this way of watermarking and that's why I'm sharing this information with you.

Here I'll explain how to create such an image. I'm using Adobe Photoshop. You don't need to be a really good Photoshopper for this one, it's pretty simple.

Create a New File (Ctrl+N) with a Width of 2 pixels and a Height of 2 pixels. Also, make sure the background is set to Transparent. Press OK to create the new file.

Grab your Pencil Tool (B) and set his size to 1 pixel. Now color the upper-left pixel and the down-right pixel black using this tool. You'll need to zoom in at maximal level using the Zoom Tool (Z) and create an image as shown below.

Define this image as a pattern by going to Edit > Define Pattern... Give your pattern a name and close your file.

Open two images: The original image and your watermark. Crop and Resize both images untill they have the same size. Now put them in a new file with the watermark as bottom layer and the image as top layer (See image below).In this example, I'm using an image from one of my favorite stock photo sites.This is the image that I'll be going to watermark with my logo.

Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) between the top layer and the watermark. Make sure you have the new, empty layer selected. Go to Edit > Fill (Shift+F5) to fill the layer. Use Pattern and select the pattern defined in the first step of this tutorial. Press "Ok" to fill the layer. Set the blending mode of this pattern layer to Exclusion.

Select the Watermark-layer (Bottom layer) and go to Image > Adjustments > Invert (Ctrl+I). Now change the opacity of the original image layer (Top Layer). Here comes the tricky part.More opacity will show a less obvious watermark when not selected. When selected, it will show a weak watermark.Less opacity will show a more obvious watermark when not selected. When selected, it will show a more visible watermark. Experiment with the opacity untill you're satisfied.

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